May 11, 2008

Box Score

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - (Sunday, May 11, 2008) The Redhawks baseball team showed their mettle as they kept clawing their way back from deficit after deficit throughout the game against Ohio Valley Conference rival Eastern Kentucky, finally grabbing their first and only lead of the game in walk-off fashion 8-7 in the series finale at Capaha Field on Sunday afternoon. It was the second walk-off win in as many days and the sixth such win of the season for the Redhawks who moved to fifth in the OVC standings with one more three-game series left in the season.

Tony Spencer (Hillsboro, MO/Mineral Area CC) struckout to lead-off the inning but the strikeout pitch got away from catcher Joe Oliver and rolled all the way to the backstop. Spencer hustled to first and easily beat the throw from Oliver. Nick Harris (Alabaster, AL/Thompson) followed with a walk. Jim Klocke (St. Louis, MO/St. John Vianney) grounded into what should have been the Redhawks fifth doubleplay of the weekend, instead Tyler Barnett mishandled the grounder and the Redhawks had the bases loaded with no outs.

Matt Wagner (Wahoo, NE/Nebraska) stepped up a delivered a double to rightfield to plate Harris and Spencer. The double knocked Mulholland from the game and brought in Patrick Cooper. Cooper got Tyrell Cummings (Muskogee, OK/Seminole State CC) to hit a chopper to third baseman Jayson Langfels, however Langfels throw hit Cummings in the back as he was running to first for an error. Klocke scored on the errant throw to tie the game. The Colonels then moved the infield in for a potential play at the plate but Trenton Moses (Advance, MO/Advance) hit a sharp grounder down the leftfield line past a diving Langfels as Wagner crossed homeplate with his hand pumped in the air for the winning run.

For Moses it was the second time this season that he collected the walk-off game winning hit. Against Samford he drove in the winning run in a pinch hitting roll.

The comeback for the Redhawks erased a sloppy game in the field that led to five unearned runs on four Redhawk errors for the Colonels. Redhawks starter Ivan Nails (Horn Lake, MS/Southwest Tennessee CC) and reliever Ryan Poole (Bradford, AR/Three Rivers CC) were the main victims of that play.

Nails put in 5.1 innings of work in his third start of the season. He allowed four runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out four. Nails ran into trouble in the opening inning as the Colonels scored two off a Matt Davis RBI single and a Langfels RBI double.

The Redhawks scored their first run of the game in the third inning. Zachary Blemker (Vincennes, IN/Vincennes CC) hit a one-out double to rightfield and moved to third on a Spencer grounder and scored on an error by Barnett's first error of the game to make it 2-1.

The Colonels got that run back in the fourth on a Ryan Faidley RBI single but left the bases loaded. The Redhawks got a run in the fifth when Harris led off the inning with a stand-up triple to right center and came home on Klocke's RBI groundout.

Again the Colonels answered this time with two runs in the sixth inning that knocked Nails from the game. The Redhawks kept fighting with two runs of their own in their half of the sixth. Matt Wulfers (Cape Girardeau, MO/Missouri) led-off with his third homerun of the season. Justin Wheeler (Lakewood, CA/Golden West CC) followed with a double that bounced off the fence in right center. Blemker successfully moved him to third on a text-book sacrifice bunt and tagged up and scored on Spencer's deep fly to center to cut the Colonels lead to one, 5-4.

The Colonels seemed to clinch the game with two insurance runs in the eighth but instead set the table for the dramatic Redhawks comeback.

The loss ruined another strong outing by a Colonels starter as Chris Grider pitched five innings allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits and struckout five. Cooper (1-6) didn't record an out and suffered the loss.

Lance Rhodes (Sikeston, MO/Saint Louis) picked up his third win with 1.1 innings of shutout relief. He allowed only two hits while striking out two.

Wagner went 3-5 with two doubles, a run scored and two RBIs. It was his team-best 18th multi-hit and 13th multi-RBI games of the season

After a tough Saturday that saw him 0-7 with five strikeouts he bounced back with a 2-4 day highlighted by a double and a run scored. Trent Moses also bounced back from a tough day one with a 2-5 performance and the gamewinning hit.

Blemker extended his hitting streak to a season-high five games going 1-1 with a walk, a run scored and a sacrifice bunt.

Klocke saw his 11-game hitting streak end but still contributed an RBI and scored the game-tying run.

Five Colonels recorded multi-hit games highlighted by Davis who went 2-5 and 6-11 in the series. Aaron Barrows went 2-4 from the lead=off spot with two RBIs.

The loss dropped the Colonels to eighth in the OVC standings and in danger of missing the OVC Baseball Tournament as the top six teams advance to Paducah, Kentucky.

The Redhawks won their fifth OVC series of the season and look to make it sixth as they travel to ninth-place Morehead State for the regular season finale this coming weekend. They trail third place teams Eatern Illinois and Austin Peay by one game in the standings.

Before traveling to Morehead, Kentucky the Redhawks host non-conference foe Central Arkansas for a two-game mid-week series. Game one is set for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. and will conclude on Wednesday with a noon contest.